In Part 1 of this blog series, we looked at Gartner’s definition of Fabric based infrastructure (FBI). In part 2, we explored the benefits of service profiles and automation of server management. In this last installment, we will look into the benefits of fabric extension to virtual machines.
According to an IDC report (New Economic Model for the Data Center), the rate of growth of virtual machines is much higher than physical machines. The life cycle of virtual machines is more dynamic than physical servers. Virtual machines may need to be moved from one network to another for data access. Additionally, typical deployments of virtual machines have an extra layer of switching in the hypervisor. The software switches in the hypervisor emulate hardware at the expense of application performance. Cisco UCS solves these problems with the Cisco Virtual Interface cards (VICs) acting as adapter fabric extenders (fig 1) and bringing the network to virtual machines (VMs).
Another problem is that network administrators have no control on the soft switches in the hypervisor, which makes monitoring of network traffic to individual VMs very cumbersome. Cisco VICs use the VN-Tag standard in IEEE 802.1 BR standard to manage each link from the VM as if it were a Read More »
How time flies: Cisco and Intel are celebrating their one-year partnership anniversary of Unleashing IT with the launch of the all new, Spring 2013 edition. Available online and in print, this latest installment is once again packed with thought-leadership content and company profiles.
Over the past year, Unleashing IT has uncovered and shared many IT best practices. The industries represented through the company profiles featured are extremely diverse, as are their solutions and deployment strategies.
But there is a common thread -- they are all are leveraging data center technology to advance, accelerate and streamline their business, enter new markets, all while achieving substantial cost savings. From education to healthcare to utility companies, innovation in the data center is driving their success -- and allowing them to keep up with demands of the business.
Perhaps you will find inspiration from these profiles, sparking new ideas -- and allowing you unleash the full potential of IT for your business.
Cisco Unified Computing Systems (UCS) server platform continues to make significant strides in becoming a major player in the mission-critical application space, in this case SAP. UCS just claimed a fantastic benchmark using the UCS B200 on SAP Sybase ASE.
Since UCS was built from the ground up for virtualization, not only will its virtues lend itself to speed as evidenced by the SAP SD benchmark , UCS will also significantly lower operating costs in the process as evidenced by an external case study with TUI Travel or HotelsBeds out of Spain. Read and downlaod here the case study
Cisco has also been running a comprehensive set of world-wide SAP HANA Roadshows. They have consisted of 11 road shows in the US, 6 road shows in EMEAR, 3 road shows in Canada, and 1 in APJC. As a result, the demand for SAP HANA on the Cisco UCS Server Platform has dramatically increased.
Cisco now has over 50 customers running SAP HANA on Cisco UCS Servers. Some of these customers vary from very large service provider companies, medical device firms, large international food companies, and world wide travel companies. The size of the server used for these customers vary from small rack mount servers (Cisco UCS C260), to medium configurations (Cisco C460) to larger installs that take advantage of the Cisco Blade Server Technology (Cisco B440). All of these servers are certified for SAP HANA and are currently available on the SAP Product Availability Matrix (PAM).
You can see this investment in the Cisco booth #1412 at SAP Sapphirefrom May 14-16 in Orlando, Florida. Look forward to seeing you there
For more information on the Cisco SAP partnership , visit also our website .
Welcome back to Engineers Unplugged. Today, we talk Big Data with Matthew Brender (@mjbrender EMC) and Hans De Leenheer (@hansdeleenheer Veeam). It’s not just a lot of data, it’s what you can do with it. For real world examples, and thoughts on where this is all going, listen in:
Matthew Brender (EMC) and Hans De Leenheer (Veeam) Talk Big Data with a Rhinocorn.
But wait, there’s more! We’ve got a second awesome episode this week. Do you live out in the middle of nowhere? Connectivity a problem? No more network blues, just build your own. This is geek ingenuity at its best, courtesy of Andy Sholomon (@asholomon Cisco) and Andy Banta (@andybanta), watch and see:
At the OpenStack Summit 2013, Red Hat announced RDO, a freely available, community-supported distribution of OpenStack. OpenStack is an open source cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter.
In addition to the new release, Red Hat also announced today the launch of an official Cloud Infrastructure Partner Program, “a multi-tiered program designed for third-party commercial companies that offer hardware, software and services for customers to implement cloud infrastructure solutions powered by Red Hat OpenStack.” I’m excited about the solution opportunities that are possible by combining UCS and Nexus offerings with Red Hat on the OpenStack cloud infrastructure.
